Apparatus for playing a new game



June 23, .1936. S, JARVIS 2,044,906

' APPARA US FOR PLAYING A NEW GAME Filed Feb. 29, 1956 III \KIIMHIII'IIIIII I)" I l 1 I I 7/ 'NVENToR:

' uart Lkwellln Jarvis.

m WW1 Arr- Patented June 23, 1936 UNITED STATES Application February 29, 1936, Serial No. 66,462 In Great Britain February 16, 1935 Claims.

This invention relates to apparatus for play- :ing a new game, which can be played by a single player or by several players and is such that, if desired, several players may sit around the appa- 5 ratus and operate it from the positions where they, sit. According to thepresent invention I provide an apparatus comprising a disc, wheelor the like capable of being manually rotated from one or more points, such disc, wheel or the like being suitably marked according to the game to be played.

Surrounding the disc, Wheel or the likeisva stationary portion or barrier which, or the edge whereof, may be raised slightly above the edge of the disc or the latter may have its periphery recessed or grooved so that the ball with which the game is placed cannot come beyond th outer periphery of the said disc. r 7 On this stationary portion about the disc are mounted in a circle a number of pivoted members, arms, fingers or the like or such pivoted fingersmay be spaced apart by stationary members of any nature whatever and of any suitable material. Several of thepivoted fingers may be interconnected so as to move together when one thereof is actuated by suitable'means suchas a rod from the outside of the apparatus, the disc and platform or surrounding portion being advantageously enclosed in an outer casing, glass covered if desired.

The pivoted fingers may. again be hollow or be in the form of tubes 'to which pneumatic-means are applied for blowing the ball, the object being to get the ball into any particular position or section by manipulating the pivoted fingers to engage the ball as the same is thrown tothe outer portion of the disc by centrifugal force during the rotationof such disc.

In a simple form of construction, the disc is actuated on similar linesto a bicycle free wheel and is mounted on a spindle appropriately carried inthe casing of the apparatus. By bicycle free wheel I mean a construction similar to the coaster type of wheel wherein theniovement of the sprocket chain under the influence of the pedals imparts forward movement to the wheel,

said wheel being free to coast after movement of the pedals and chain ceases. A knob or handle projects from the casing and serves for causing the rotation of said disc.

Ten pivoted fingers may be mounted on the l barrierand surround the edge of the disc each such pivoted finger being eccentrically pivoted PATENT OFFICE and the whole of them lying more orless on the same circumferential line so as to present a fairly uniform surface. The movable arms may be connected so that a number of them may be moved together under the influence of a single manually operable element, or each of said arms may be independently movable by providing it with suitable actuating means.

I The pivoted fingers may be of any suitable material and they may be rigid or pliable.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a vertical cross section on the line II of Fig. 2; Fig. 2 is a plan of the apparatus, and Fig. 3 shows an enlarged view of the driving mechanism.

In this drawing, I represents the disc or wheel manually driven by a lever 2, of which more than one may be fitted around the table. The central portion of the disc carries the scoring sections or compartments, as shown, into which or 'upon which the game piece is to be directedby the manipulation of the fingers, hereinafter described. 7 Surrounding the said discis a stationary barrier 3 preferably raised somewhat above the level of the disc I and on this, stationarypart 3 aremountedaseries of pivoted members, arcs of circle, finger pieces or the like such as 4. V The pivoted fingers may each be independently operated by operating means 5, or as shown in Fig. 2 several of the pivoted fingers 4 may be interconnected by links 411, or by arcuate members or the like so as to move together when actuated by the operating means 5. Obviously, other means of coupling the pivoted fingers 4 may be adopted and any desired number of operating levers corresponding to the elements 5 may be provided around the apparatus, one for cachin- "tended player. It is'thought that it will be clear that when the elements 5 liein one position, the, pivoted fingers 4 will be retracted and 'lie out of the path of movement of the ball 8, thati's being carried around on disc I, whilegwhen said "elements 5 are actuated, the fingers will beswung toward the center of the disc. i

' That portion of the disc which lies outwardly of the scoring sections presents a surrounding annulus having an unobstructed and preferably plane upper face, over which the fingers are moved horizontallyby the manipulation of the elements 5 and to positions where they will certainly engage the ball with a greater or lesser degree of retentive effect, as presently set forth.

I amaware of the fact that gameapparatus ;has heretofore been proposed, comprisingeleas to direct it into that scoring section most advantageous to the player.

The ball is not actually struck by the fingers; it is more correct to say that it is caught by the fingers and guided, so that the ball is permitted to leave the free end of the obstructing finger at such a moment in the rotation of the disc that the same will roll into a pre-selected scoring section.

It will thus be seen that this game is more of a game of skill than chance, because, under the present invention, the ball will always be caught by one or the other of the fingers, so that the whole skill of the player can be concentrated upon selecting a suitable scoring section and guiding the ball into it as it comes around into position.

The disc and its mechanism can be enclosed in a glass covered casing 6, if desired, and coinfreed mechanism of usual type indicated by 1 may be incorporated although such mechanism per se forms no part of the invention and its details are therefore not given in the drawing.

The disc I is fitted with driving mechanism consisting in its simplest form of a free wheel 9 mounted on a hub ID of such disc I said free wheel 9 of sprocket formation being actuated by a rack mechanism such as sprocket chain H by pulling and subsequently releasing the handle 2 which latter may be returned to normal position by spring means in known manner as indicated at 12. The hub l0 fits upon a stud, indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3, and said hub carries at its base one of the elements of a ball-thrust bearing, by which the disc is mounted to spring freely and with but little friction.

The coin freed mechanism need not be incorporated with the above construction in certain cases.

It will be understood that the apparatus whilst simple in construction and use requires considerable skill to direct the ball as it is carried round by the disc into the best scoring position by means of the operable arms surrounding the said disc.

Modifications in detail may of course be embodied without departing from the principle of the invention.

I claim:

1. Game apparatus comprising a horizontally rotative disc having a central portion formed with scoring sections, adapted when stationary to retain a game piece, a continuous surrounding annulus extending from the scoring sections to the periphery of the disc, means for periodically spinning said disc to cause the game piece to fly outwards onto the surface of the said annulus by centrifugal force, a raised circular stationary barrier completely surrounding and closely adjoining the peripheral edge of the disc to maintain the game piece in play whilst the disc is spinning, a plurality of fingers pivotally mounted in said stationary barrier so as to be movable horizontally across the surface of the annulus to thereby be capable of obstructing the game piece and guiding the same into one or other of the scoring sections in the central portion of the disc, and means manually operable by the players for effecting and controlling the movement of said fingers.

2. Game apparatus comprising a horizontally rotative disc having a central portion formed with scoring sections, adapted when stationary to retain a game piece, a continuous surrounding annulus extending from the scoring sections to the periphery of the disc, manually operable means of the free-wheel type for periodically spinning said disc to cause the game piece to fiy outwards onto the surface of the annulus by centrifugal force, a raised circular stationary barrier completely surrounding and closely adjoining the peripheral edge of the disc to maintain the game piece in play whilst the disc is spinning, a plurality of fingers pivotally mounted in said stationary barrier so as to be movable horizontally across the surface of the annulus, to thereby be capable of obstructing the game piece and guiding the same into one or other of the scoring sections in the central portion of the disc, and means manually operable by the players for effecting and controlling the movements of said fingers.

3. Game apparatus comprising a horizontally rotative disc having a central portion formed with scoring sections, adapted when stationary to retain a game piece, a continuous surrounding annulus extending from the scoring sections to the periphery of the disc, means for periodically spinning said disc to cause the game piece to fly outwards onto the surface of the annulus by centrifugal force, a raised circular stationary barrier completely surrounding and closely adjoining the peripheral edge of the disc to maintain the game piece in play whilst the disc is spinning, a plurality of fingers pivotally mounted in said stationary barrier so as to be swung horizontally across the surface of the annulus to thereby be capable of obstructing the game piece and guiding the same into one or other of the scoring sections in the central portion of the disc, links serving to connect a plurality of said fingers together to form two or more sets so that the fingers in each set are operable in unison, and means manually operable by the players for effecting and controlling the movements of said sets of fingers.

4. Game apparatus comprising a horizontally rotative disc having a central portion formed with scoring sections, adapted when stationary to retain a game piece, and integral with it a continuous surrounding annulus extending from the scoring sections to the periphery of the disc, manually operable means of the free-wheel type for spinning said disc to cause the game piece to fly outwards onto the surface of the annulus by centrifugal force, a raised circular stationary barrier completely surrounding and closely adjoining the peripheral edge of the disc to maintain the game piece in play whilst the disc is spinning, a plurality of fingers pivotally mounted in said stationary barrier so as to be movable radially and horizontally across the surface of the annulus, said fingers being of such a length and so shaped as to be capable of obstructing the game piece and guiding the same into one or other of the scoring sections in the central portion of the disc, links serving toconnect a plurality of said fingers together to form two or more sets so that the fingers in each set are operable in unison, and means manually operable by the players for effecting and controlling the movements of said sets of fingers.

5. Game apparatus comprising a. horizontally rotative disc having scoring sections upon the central portion of its surface and an annulus having a plane upper face surrounding the said scoring sections, a fixed barrier about the periphery of the disc, a plurality of fingers mounted around the periphery of the disc for swinging movement in a substantially horizontal plane across the plane surface of the annulus, and manually operable means for actuating said fingers to project them into the path of movement of a game piece that is being carried around by the disc in its rotation, and to engage said game piece throughout varying angular positions of the said fingers to thereby vary the extent of the engagement of the game piece by the fingers.

STUART ILEWELYN JARVIS. 

